The new “Apply With LinkedIn” button

Attention all lazy job seekers: your dream is finally here.

With unemployment at around 14% in Florida, it might be really tempting to try to click your way to a job. Sure you may get lucky…just fill the countryside with buckshot and hope that something falls from the sky. But I have always preferred rifle shot to buckshot, both when looking for work and when candidates are looking for work from me.

While I am not in HR, it seems like the greatest challenge facing job seekers today is to emerge from behind the firewall. To me this button could be just one more way to ensure you stay behind the firewall. Of course I am up for anything that helps people in their search to hire or be hired, but this button shows a prospective employer that:

– You are not uniquely interested in working with them.

– You are a button clicker and might be the same in your role.

– You are the same as all the other button clickers.

Finding employment is not like shopping on Target.com. You don’t want to just add your career to cart, review your order and check out, do you? You are more important than that.

Even without the Apply With LinkedIn button, look how ferocious the competition is. A friend of mine, Ivan Mlandenovic, CEO of Preemo, is looking to hire. Here’s what he had to say in response to LinkedIn’s new feature via Facebook:

There is one great feature about the Apply With LinkedIn button. “Once you submit your job application, you are given the opportunity to message your contacts at the company and ask for a referral.” That could come in real handy.

LinkedIn is a great resource on both sides of the job equation. I just don’t think you can just single click your way to a career, do you?

11 Responses to “The new “Apply With LinkedIn” button”

You know, I had a long comment written up, and decided that it just isn’t worth it. Two years of tailoring cover letters and resumes for hundreds of potential employers, of jumping through hoops designed to legally weed out people in protected classes, of the increasing hostility of human resource staff toward job seekers — frankly, it’s made me more than a little cynical about the entire process, and I don’t like the way it makes me feel.

But cynicism may be a natural defense mechanism. The alternative would be to accept the implications of my failure to find employment: that I have no value as a human being, that I am too old to be of use to society, that I have become unemployable. And frankly, I’d rather be bitter about the dehumanization of the employment process than to consider my life over at 51.

You’re too smart not to be employed. I don’t know what it is that you’ve applied for or how you’ve done it. MK, please read John’s comments below where he sheds some light on how to advance to the next level. He’s an A lister HR pro.

I understand your cynicism, but at this point, is it standing in the way of your search process.

My attitude has always been this: Screw unemployment statistics. I am one person and only need one position. It’s the rifle hot approach and it has served me well. I wish the best for you.

I’m not sure that I’m right on this. I’d love to hear more from your side if you have a chance.

Don’t you want candidates that make it clear that they want to work with you at FIU? Has anyone you know of used this one click button? Wouldn’t you prefer a cover note, video, self-promotion piece than to just have incoming links to a profile?

Back in the old days, people would buy a mannequin foot with a resume attached to it and drop them off at and employers office. They would leave a note that says, “Now that I have a foot in the door, can I schedule an interview?” Bad example, but you get the point.

Let’s look at it from the perspective of the job seeker. This will make the process easier..can a resume really showcase who you are? I believe a LinkedIn profile does a much better job of that. The HR person would still have to sift thru a bunch of these but in my opinion it should be a lot easier to sift thru LinkedIn pages than thru downloading resumes.

As a recruiter I can how see your tweets, your connections and even your videos…(if they’re connected to the LinkedIn page) and I can make an easy determination on whether you are qualified to move on to the next step.

The application button doesn’t eliminate the job interview process but in my opinion it should make it easier to get more qualified people from the very start. More work upfront resulting in stronger candidates.

I’m not a HR guy, but I agree that a LI profile is a FAR better snapshot of any candidate (whether it includes you or excludes you) than a resume.

Actually, I think there are things that you (Jeff) are doing that are even more proactive than a one click apply button. Take your new new mini-movies. Brilliant and well done. Maybe you should speak to John (above). He’s an HR pro and can give you a better perspective from that side.

I’m not sure LI is that much better today than it was 3 days ago, but I’m certain you are.

At the end of the process is a human who’s still got to sift (albeit virtually now) through all the applicants. Now whether this individual is a trained professional (i.e a recruiter) or a hiring manager, is almost irrelevant.

I did an experiment once where I did a boolean search on a job I posted with several hundred applications. When I compared the candidates that I had selected by scanning the resumes versus the search string I found that we were pretty much in agreement, maybe off by 5 candidates. And with those 5, I took a closer look and then still rejected them.

From an HR tech perspective this is pretty lame. Most organizations have invested major dollars in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), so if this process does not find a way to make it into the company’s ATS, well the candidate is out.

Remember, your resume (or LI profile) may get you a phone call or even in the door. How well you interview determines if you get an offer or not.

Thanks for coming back with more insight. This whole synthetic intelligence (keyword) thing annoys me but it’s a fact of life so I better just deal with it. Maybe I’m just yearning for the good old days before the search process became less personal and more clinical. I’ll just have to deal with that as well.

In my real life, I am a Sales Manager. I am hiring right now. My position is posted all over the place. I designed a job description and application process that will weed out all of the “job clickers”. Some places don’t even have an apply button. My instructions are simple but you cannot imagine how many people think they can just ignore them.

If they just send me a resume or leave me a voice mail, no matter how awesome they sound or qualified they may be, I ignore them if they can’t follow instructions. It’s really a pity that with so many out of work, almost NONE are taking that extra initiative.

I agree that applicants need to follow directions. But like you said, take the extra initiative.

What if I were to apply for the position correctly as per your specs then do this…rent a tank, roll it up in front of your office and the banner says, “I’m out to defend your turf. Hire Mike LaMonica.”

Good post. I agree that Linkedin is very useful as an add on – but not as a substitute for a tailored CV and application.
And as Rob says, if an applicant ignores the particular requirements of the job opportunity – well, they’re just making it easy for the likes of Rob to reject them out of hand.
Sure the application process is irritating, labyrinthine and dispiriting. But sadly that’s just the way it is. There’s no easy way round it.
(Apart from nepotism of course. That beats everything. Hasn’t happened to me yet though, so sticking to the application process.)